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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24208240">Grand Declarations</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/theemdash/pseuds/theemdash'>theemdash</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Five Kisses Across Time [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Captain America (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(just in terms of addressing the canonical relationship), Angst, Banter, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Happy Bucky Barnes, Kissing, M/M, Missing Scene, Past Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Promises, Steve's finally brave with his heart, Time Travel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:54:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,001</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24208240</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/theemdash/pseuds/theemdash</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Bucky joins Steve on his mission to return the Infinity Stones to the timestream, they steal a moment for themselves and Steve considers all the time they've lost. (Or, the one when Steve finally pulls his head out of his ass and wears his heart on his sleeve.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Five Kisses Across Time [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1741873</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>136</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Grand Declarations</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written as a response to Get Your Words Out 2020 Yahtzee; <b>Prompt:</b> Playful. Also the narrative convenience at the end of Endgame is so dumb. Why send ten heroes to retrieve the stones and only one to put them back? Pfft.</p>
<p>Thanks to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/sopdetly/">sopdetly</a> for betaing and for exploding in heart emojis.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>2012 (via 2023)</b>
</p>
<p>Steve doesn't really remember the days after the Battle of New York. Or, he does, but they're a blur of SHIELD debriefs, clean up mobilization, fighting doctors and nurses who don't understand <i>he's fine,</i> and moving into Stark Tower. He knows roughly where he was, and where to avoid, so when Bucky suggests staying for a few days after returning the time stone and scepter, they immediately head to Brooklyn.</p>
<p>It's not the Brooklyn they remember, but enough of it's still there, and when they walk down their old street, Bucky slides his fingers between Steve's and squeezes his hand. He can feel the tremor, the expectation that they'll be called on to defend themselves, but Steve knows the ways 2012 is different from 1942. Still, he walks a little closer to Bucky, letting their closeness camouflage their hands.</p>
<p>"Never expected to do this," he says, tone light.</p>
<p>"Time travel, or walk around Brooklyn holding my hand?" Their eyes are hidden behind sunglasses, but Steve can feel when Bucky's gaze rests on him.</p>
<p>"Both, technically, you jerk. But I meant—"</p>
<p>"Yeah, I know." A quick squeeze tells Steve to drop it. </p>
<p>He does. For a minute. But then he's thinking about lost years, and Bucky's history, and how they mapped Bucky's life to the best of their ability, patching together a rough timeline—when his body was on ice, when it was awake, and what he'd done against his will. Bucky remembers more of it than Steve feels comfortable with. He remembers Natasha, which is a cruel joke Steve tries to forget.</p>
<p>"You missed this year. On ice. The whole of 2012."</p>
<p>Bucky makes a vague sound of agreement.</p>
<p>The orange afternoon sun catches Steve's face when he tilts his head back. "I was a wreck in 2012, just trying to figure out how to live. Get over losing you the first time." Steve hitches a sad smile around the words and tightens his grip on Bucky to remind himself he'd been wrong and that Bucky was with him now. "And I didn't know who to talk to about any of it. History books had me attached to Peggy."</p>
<p>"You <i>were</i> attached to Peggy," Bucky cuts in.</p>
<p>Steve gives him a look that loses something behind the dark lenses. "Sorry, whose dick was I sucking when we were on watch behind enemy lines?"</p>
<p>"Dunno, must've forgot." The fact that Buck can turn that into a joke should startle Steve, but he just rolls his eyes.</p>
<p>"Are you fucking serious?"</p>
<p>"You're serious enough for the both of us." A grin tugs Bucky's mouth, and he looks a lot like he's trying to keep from laughing. When Steve catches his too-serious expression reflected in Bucky's sunglasses he can understand the humor, and he almost cracks too, but he means this, and he needs to say it, this thing he's been holding on to longer than the last five years.</p>
<p>"I'm tired," he says. "I'm ready."</p>
<p>Bucky stops cold, the four words having even more effect on him than Steve thought they would. Buck pulls the glasses from his face, stares at Steve with wide, anxious eyes. "Are <i>you</i> serious?" he asks. He closes the step between them, his voice hushed and dangerous. "Are you fucking serious?"</p>
<p>Steve grins, feeling pleased to see the tables so quickly reversed. "Yeah."</p>
<p>Before Steve knows what's happening, Bucky's scooping him up in his arms and kissing him. Steve's heart kicks into his throat and he feels like he's twenty, thinking about kissing Bucky all the time and drawing him every chance Bucky isn't looking. He feels like Bucky's kissing him for the first time, that breathless brush promising Steve just one kiss for the rest of their lives and Steve begging him that it will be more. He feels like he's discovering Bucky's alive, that he failed him in a different way, but that Steve has hope again and it drags him to the surface of icy water and forces him to finally breathe.</p>
<p>His fingers sneak into Bucky's hair, not caring that they're in the middle of the sidewalk and that one of Bucky's hands has wound up on his ass. In fact, it's kind of better this way.</p>
<p>"Springing this on me while we're on a mission," Bucky chides against Steve's lips.</p>
<p>"Last mission," Steve offers. He thinks he can keep that promise. He wants to, if it means he and Bucky can wake up in the same bed for the rest of their lives. </p>
<p>Bucky snorts, pulling away enough to get his glasses back on his face. "I'll believe that when we're both dead." He takes Steve's hand again, but brings it up to press a kiss to his thumb.</p>
<p>Steve shrugs, glad to know Buck won't hold it against him if he can't help himself, glad that Bucky knows who Steve is at his core and has never tried to force him to be something else. "I am ready. To settle with you. Like you wanted."</p>
<p>The smile that curls Bucky's mouth is tinged with sadness, but his voice is teasing when he says, "You missed me that much, huh?"</p>
<p>"I helped invent time travel, Buck. What grander declaration do you need?"</p>
<p>His smile brightens into a laugh, a flush blossoming under his skin. "I'm sure we can deface a monument, or rewrite some of those history books that have you so bothered." Bucky's arm slides around Steve's shoulder, and even though Steve doesn't fit neatly under Bucky's wing, he drops his shoulder and leans in to the affection.</p>
<p>"I'm not defacing a monument."</p>
<p>"Defacing history it is!"</p>
<p>Steve pinches Bucky's side, laughing when Bucky's whole body jerks into Steve's space. He tightens his hand on Bucky's hip and pecks a kiss on Bucky's cheek. They still have three Infinity Stones to return—all on other planets, big adventure there—but after that, they'll go home, together, where Steve Rogers will finally admit just how much he needs Bucky Barnes.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The fics in this series can be read stand-alone, but there is an emotional arc across all five stories. Welcome to the end! If you read the whole series and enjoyed it, please let me know by dropping kudos on all the parts and/or (preferably and) leaving a comment. Comments help keep me alive.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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